The mother of a young British woman who was murdered in Australia last year has written an open letter criticising President Trump and the White House for listing her daughter's death as a "terrorist-related attack".

Backpacker Mia Ayliffe-Chung, 21, was stabbed to death in Queensland last August and police were clear early on that the murder was not being treated as a terror attack.

Nevertheless, the Trump administration chose to include her death on a list of 78 alleged terror attacks.

The list was released to support the president's claim that attacks committed or inspired by Islamic State were being "under-reported" by the media, despite the fact that Ayliffe-Chung's death was widely reported in the UK and worldwide, according to the BBC. Also on the list was the Bataclan theatre attack in Paris and 2015's shootings in Sousse, Tunisia.

Trump is also currently in a legal battle to restore his ban on travellers and refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries, which has been widely criticised.

Rosie Ayliffe condemned the president for using her daughter's death in this way. "Treating immigrants as disposable commodities and disregarding their safety causes deaths throughout our so-called civilised world," she wrote in an open letter.

30-year-old Thomas Jackson was also stabbed in the attack that killed Ayliffe-Chung and later died in hospital.

Ayliffe added: "The possibility of Mia and Tom's deaths being consequent to an Islamic terror attack was discounted in the early stages of the police investigation," reported the BBC.

"This vilification of whole nation states and their people based on religion is a terrifying reminder of the horror that can ensue when we allow ourselves to be led by ignorant people into darkness and hatred."

French national Smail Ayad, 29, was charged for Ayliffe-Chung's murder in August and for the murder of Jackson in October.